2004 Sidney Sax Medallist - Professor Helen Lapsley

Helen has made an outstanding contribution to health services policy, organisation, delivery and research in this nation. Her achievements in, and contribution to, the development and improvement of the Australian healthcare system have been outstanding. She has published extensively on health policy.

Through her lifetime commitment to the health system, and related services, she has achieved national and international recognition.

First and foremost, Helen is a health economist. As such, she has had substantial influence in health policy development in Australia. She has a considerable intellect and has gained profound professional standing.

The traditional role of a good university academic requires a capacity to be skilled in the three areas of teaching, research and services. Helen, in her long academic career mainly, at the University of New South Wales in the School of Health Services Management, has been and continues to be an outstanding achiever across all three aspects.

Teaching has been conducted in a variety of multi-level programs. Many of her former students in health service administration and management are currently employed throughout health services in Australia. She currently holds positions at Queensland and Hong Kong Universities.

As her curriculum vitae below reveals, there is a substantial national and international research and scholarship performance, including an international track record in tobacco health research. Her work as a health economist has led to a number of consultancies with international agencies, including the World Bank, World Health Organisation, the International Red Cross and AUSAID.

In terms of the third arm of the academic role - ‘service’ - Helen has complemented her formal academic work by contributing to the Australian healthcare system in a wide variety of other roles with numerous health and health-related organisations at both the state and national level. These roles have included a whole range of board roles, including the NSW Medical Board, as well as editorial roles on key academic journals. All these roles have involved a high level of personal commitment in a very busy and active career.

She has also been a dedicated contributor to academic journals: For example, the Australian Health Review, Australian Casemix Bulletin, Journal of Health Administration Education and Australian Studies in Health Service Administration.

This outstanding contribution to the improvement of the Australian healthcare system is underpinned by her ability to instil the complexities and debates on contemporary health issues and to facilitate outcomes through the direct application of friendly critique.

In summary Helen Lapsley has:

1. A long-standing and current voluntary contribution to a very wide range of organisations.

2. Current academic roles in Hong Kong and Queensland University and a lengthy career at the University of New South Wales.

3. Substantial contributions in research and teaching to medical and health professionals in health economics and related subjects, including over 60 publications.

4. An international reputation in health economics, including many consultancies.

5. An extraordinary variety of complex organisational and leadership commitments in health bodies.

6. A capacity to clarify changing complex health issues, using a facilitative style, such as with the National Health Summits of 2003 and 2004.

7. A high level of critical inquiry skills that ease pathways and solutions, for example in the NSW Medical Board.

8. A unique capacity to link the academic with the experiential and to apply this with great ease to health service matters.

9. A set of personal qualities that allows her to communicate clearly with the health sector.

The Australian Healthcare Association has great pleasure in awarding the 2004 AHA Sidney Sax Medal to Helen Lapsley.

Curriculun Vitae

Nationality:

New Zealand

Academic Qualifications:

Bachelor of Arts Auckland University, 1969

Master of Economics Sydney University, 1979

Current Positions:
Research Professor
Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine
University of Queensland Herston Brisbane Queensland 4006

Visiting Professor
Faculty of Medicine
University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052

Current Professional Appointments:

Member, National Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Conditions Advisory Group

Until 2001, Helen Lapsley taught postgraduate courses in Health Economics, Quality Assurance, Health Care Systems, and Ethics of Resource Allocation in the School of Health Services Management, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. She supervised 12 completed research theses, including seven PhDs.
She is currently a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Medicine .

International consultancies have been undertaken on behalf of:

• The World Bank
• World Health Organisation
• International Red Cross
• Australian International Development Assistance Bureau
* Rockefeller Foundation

Consultancies within Australian have been undertaken on behalf of:

• Commonwealth Government
• State Governments
• Australian Hospital Association
• Australian Private Hospital Association
• public and private hospitals

Recent consultancies include studies of the development of economic policies in health care, resource allocation, hospital and health care costs, the medical workforce, costs of drug and alcohol abuse, medical education, the development and integration of technology in the health care sector, hospital strategic planning and economic evaluation. Countries in which she has worked include Japan, Malaysia, Laos, China, Western Samoa and Fiji.

She has presented invited papers at conferences and symposia in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, England, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, The Netherlands and Switzerland.

She has been a member of a number of Commonwealth and State Government Committees and Task Forces, including the Commonwealth Government Task Force to Review Private Hospital Categorisation, the Review of the National Centre for Health Program Evaluation at Monash University and the Review of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centres in Sydney and Perth. She is a reviewer for economic and medical academic journals, and an assessor for national and international grants funding bodies.

Prior to her appointment at the University of New South Wales in 1977, she was an independent consultant and held a part-time appointment in the School of Economic and Financial Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney.

In 1974 she assisted in the establishment of a research project in the United Kingdom into sources for and distribution of Local Government finance, at the London School of Economics.

Early experience involved working in the securities industry in a number of capacities for two major sharebroking firms in New Zealand, including market analysis, portfolio selection, operating and financial analysis.